Tyrant
by GreaterGoodIreland
Summary: The Sole Survivor saved the Commonwealth. The Sole Survivor rules the Commonwealth. But does he rule justly? - Post-FO4 story


**PUBLICK OCCURRENCES**

 _Remembering the Recent Past_

 _By Piper Wright_

Happy New Year 2292! Another year, another celebration, the same old problems.

But as we raise our glasses, I think we need to look back at just how much things have changed in such a short time. Changed for the better, despite everything.

Five years ago, the Institute held our fair Commonwealth in chains that most couldn't even see, kidnapping people and replacing some with synthetic versions to spy and sabotage. Raiders robbed and killed at the drop of a hat, roaming with no one to stop them. Those who were supposed to do that, the Minutemen, had become nothing but a shell of their former selves, and even the shell became nothing at Quincy. Ghouls had no place to call their own, and synths were enslaved to carry out their masters' whims. Today, none of these things is still true. Not one.

And we owe it all to one person; The Sole Survivor of Vault 111, the Man Out of Time.

The record needs to be set straight about this. I remember the first time he showed up outside the gates of Diamond City, with a Mr. Handy and a Miss Nanny floating behind him, proudly walking around in that blue jumpsuit of his, a gun in his hands and another on his hip. He'd already made a splash by helping out Vault 81, the first place he thought of that might have survivors from his own time.

He ran into the future President Garvey in Concord, who told him about our fair city. I think if I was in his position, I would have rushed straight to the Great Green Jewel to find answers, but he had a habit of helping people he couldn't shake off. He helped Garvey get to safety in Sanctuary, his old home. He went to 81 thinking that there might be someone in need of rescuing from Vault Tec there. Probably should have asked Preston first.

Blue helped me too, and Nick Valentine, and so many others. Said his wife called it karma. He called it the Golden Rule.

Little did we know that he'd also helped out the Brotherhood of Steel. We all only found out after he had finished with Kellogg, and the _Prydwen_ came flying in from the west. Blue was a soldier in the old world. He had lost his wife for good, and his son to the Institute. Despite my reservations, I could see why he felt drawn to them.

Of course, things got complicated when he had to go to the Railroad for help, especially when he found himself agreeing that synths were people, not just technology. The Brotherhood didn't warm to that opinion, but they kept him on anyway. That should have been a clue to the trouble the enemies of the Commonwealth were in.

As everyone knows now, the Institute had made a huge mistake in crossing Blue. Not only was he a soldier, but he climbed to the top of the Commonwealth's three deadliest factions in the course of getting his revenge. As a soldier, he was ruthless.

Sometimes scarily so.

Not many people know what happened on the Yangtze, now called the _Semper Invicta,_ only that Blue took it in the name of the Brotherhood. I was with him the entire time. The ghoulified captain was still alive after two hundred years, being born in Blue's time, and he asked for help in getting the machinery working again. He just wanted to go home. Blue had a strange look on his face during the whole conversation, but he agreed. We cleared out the submarine, me, Danse and Curie. We trudged up north to get a spare part for the machinery, clearing the Forged out of the Ironworks in the process and running into the beginnings of the Slog.

And in the end, after fixing the reactor and receiving the thanks of the Captain, Blue pulled out his pistol shot the Captain in the heart, after telling him exactly why it had to be. The Captain was a mass murderer that had killed everyone Blue ever knew before. The submarine and his life was the least amount of compensation due. It was quick and clean, and justice is justice, but I was afraid of Blue for a while after that. His discipline was the scary part, that he waited until the submarine was fixed to get revenge rather than losing his temper as soon as the Captain had opened his mouth.

But that didn't last long. He regretted his actions despite himself. It was hard to remain scared of him when he did things like going behind Maxson's back to give Curie and later Edna human bodies, and to rescue enslaved synths. Or venturing deep into Gunner territory to get Cait clean of chems, get Vault 88 working and help out the Atom Cats. All of them are his friends to this day thanks to his willingness to lend a hand. Curie and Cait are even more close to him, but that's another story. And of course, he went all over the Commonwealth to build up the Minutemen, in anticipation of his showdown with the Institute, retaking Fort Independence with the assistance of Brotherhood Knights.

When the final battle came, the Brotherhood, the Minutemen and the Railroad all fought to take down our most hated enemy. Getting them to do so was a real tightrope act. Maxson wanted to eliminate the Railroad first, but Blue managed to convince him that it would be a waste of lives. It wasn't enough to save Danse, but it was enough to make our present possible. His report on the Coursers showed that every single soul would be needed to win.

But win we did.

The Brotherhood's big stompy robot broke in one way, the Minutemen infiltrated in another, and synths inside Institute rose up and seized the relay room, the mysterious teleportation tech allowing the Railroad access. After a brutal battle, the underground lair of the Institute was evacuated, the Coursers eliminated, Shaun rescued and CIT turned into a crater by an atomic explosion.

A victory for the entire Commonwealth. The Institute was no more.

And the alliance that brought it down almost fell too. With the Institute out of the way, Maxson wanted to fight the Railroad again, especially after it became clear they let the Institute's synths loose. Blue refused.

There was another option. With the capability to create more synths destroyed, the lethal threat to humanity was gone. The dual nature of synths as both people and technology allowed another option. The synths could join the Brotherhood, and exist peacefully under the watchful eyes of the scribes. Anything else and the Railroad would simply disappear the synths into society, which would make it very difficult to track them, even with Institute records.

Maxson is a young man. Younger than Blue. He was a lot less sure of himself than he played, even for a fanatic. He could be convinced. Slowly. Along the way, Blue almost got expelled from the Brotherhood. There was a threat of execution at one point, averted only by the loyalty of the lower ranks Blue had earned through his almost miraculous victories side by side with them. But in the end, hunting down the synths was a task the Brotherhood didn't have the resources for. There was just too many places they could hide. Even the Institute had been waging a losing battle with better tech.

Maxson gave in. The Great Boston Compromise is what they call it now. Blue just called it common sense.

The _Prydwen_ went home to the Capital Wasteland, the Super Mutants had grown in numbers in the mean time, leaving a Brotherhood garrison under Blue's command at Fort Strong and the Airport, as well as on the _Semper_ _Invicta._ The Railroad disappeared, as most synths signed up to the new deal. The Minutemen became something greater.

Since then, we've had our ups and downs.

One 'up' was definitely Far Harbor. I remember standing on the docks there with Blue, as the Brotherhood Knights came wading out of the foam, while Minutemen boats unloaded volunteers, missiles streaming out of the submarine, all come to save the people of the island from the monsters and Atom cultists. It was a fierce fight, but nothing compared to taking on the Institute. And hey, we might get another submarine out of the deal, so who's complaining?

Another was the reestablishment of the CPG, and the election of Preston Garvey as President. Old Preston couldn't believe it when Blue put him up for the job, but I guess our favorite vault dweller had his hands full being a Sentinel. Preston's a dreamer too, and he turned the Minutemen into the Continental Army in no time flat. Cleared out the Super Mutants from Boston, with a little Brotherhood help. Made it safe for the traders and provisioners. It isn't perfect. The old subway is still infested, and no one will go down there except Blue's Knights. But it's a start.

For a moment there, I thought we might actually have peace.

It's not like we could have expected the Gunners or the NukaWorld raiders to join in the hugging. While we were busy freeing the people of Far Harbor or building a new future, they were busy plotting to take us for all we're worth. What was completely unexpected was that they'd all decide to join forces. Guess we got them spooked by coming together like we did, so they played copycat.

Last year, the Gunners took Vault 88 and almost killed the Atom Cats, pushing as far north as University Point before the guns of Fort Independence stopped them cold. On the same day, the NukaWorlders swarmed in from the north west, attacking Sanctuary, Abernathy Farm, Tenpines Bluff and Sunshine. The next war started, hot on the heels of the last one.

I think we all need to step back and remember we have overcome greater threats than the Gunners or the Pack. Together, we can win this war. We'll push back the Gunners to the Glowing Sea, we'll take Vault 88 back from them and Vault 95 too. We'll throw the Pack, the Operators and the Disciples out west where they belong.

And we're ready for it, on the western front, on the southern frontier, at Far Harbor and even here in Diamond City. We've seen worse, and we will see better. I'm sure of it. Because if the the men and women of the Commonwealth have learned anything, it's that war never changes.

* * *

 **THE BOSTON CHRONICLE**

 _The Railroad Lives!_

 _By Nat Wright_

People of the Commonwealth, you have been lied to!

The Sole Survivor, the man who destroyed the Institute, is not who you think he is!

For years now, he has told you that the synths have accepted their fate. That they agreed to join the Brotherhood of Steel, to avoid being hunted down and to be safe from the vengeance of humanity.

Yet the paranoia about unregistered synths has swept through the Commonwealth, from the top down. We have all had visits in the night by Brotherhood Knights, we have all had to go through tests and prodding to try and find the synths that refused to be enslaved. We even know of cases where innocent people have been dragged off to the Airport in the name of their 'Great Compromise' for 'further investigation'.

And have no doubts people, it is slavery. Synths are not allowed to exist outside of the Brotherhood of Steel. Those that do are hunted down, caught and then either killed or have their memories wiped so they can be made into good little soldiers. I'm not sure what is worse.

Then there are the ghouls. It was bad enough when Mayor McDonough, Institute agent, had them expelled from Diamond City for no good reason other than stirring up hatred of neighbors for votes. But the Brotherhood moving all of them to the Slog or Goodneighbour at the point of a gun is something else! I know what they say, that it's for their own protection, that it's to stop them hurting people when they could go feral at any moment, and that the Slog isn't all that bad. But at the end of the day, a ghoul can't walk the streets of Boston without being arrested or shot!

I know what you're thinking. Oh look, it's Piper's little sister making noise, to try and step out of her sister's shadow. And you're right. I admit it. But that doesn't make me wrong. Don't believe me? Hear the real story of what happened at Far Harbor and decide for yourselves!

Everyone likes to talk about what a great job the Brotherhood and the Minutemen did there, but no one talks about how it happened exactly. I know. I was there. I snuck on board the boat to follow Piper, and I heard our glorious savior's own words.

The synths on the island lived peacefully on a mountain called Acadia. He went there to find the daughter of a friend of Nick Valentine, Kasumi Nakano, who had run away from home. Ironically. Piper, Nick and Curie went with him to the island, and made their way through the infamous Fog with a local guide. They found Kasumi with a group of escaped synths, and she had been brainwashed into believing she was one, at least according to the vault dweller. The synths refused to return with him or join the Brotherhood, but he shrugged off this behavior. At first.

Instead, he gathered information and convinced the daughter that the synth leader was insane. Kasumi left Acadia with him, and returned to the Commonwealth with Nick Valentine. But _he_ stayed. _He_ called in the Brotherhood and the Minutemen under the guise of protecting the residents of Far Harbor and defeating the cultists. They did that, that is undeniable, but they did something else too.

Using the nukes left by the Chinese on the Brotherhood submarine, he destroyed Acadia and sent a team lead by Knight-Captain Larsen to make sure no one had survived. No one did. I heard him receive the confirmation, when Piper wasn't around. My own sister didn't believe me when I told her, and still doesn't! She says it was the Children of Atom!

The Commonwealth is ruled by a man who is willing to nuke people who don't obey him. How is that any better than what the Institute did? Or what the Gunners are trying to do?

The New War is his fault too. When he decided to destroy Acadia, he stripped the Commonwealth of its protection to do it. The Gunners and the NukaWorlders couldn't have attacked if we had been at full strength. The war would have been over as soon as it started if those soldiers hadn't departed on his little murder trip to the island. Instead, the war grinds on, the casualties mount and there is no end in sight.

And have no doubt that he is who runs the show. Garvey is nothing but a puppet, the so-called Continental Army just another part of the Brotherhood with a different name and uniform, the CPG a way of gathering resources and tech for their scribes.

The Sole Survivor is a tyrant.

This newspaper will be dedicated to bringing you the real news from the war and the real actions, to pull the wool from your eyes. Some of the stories will make you sick to your stomach.

But fear not, my fellow Bostonians. There is hope. Despite Brotherhood propaganda, the Railroad lives, and is determined to free our Commonwealth from the steel grip of the bloodthirsty zealots. Some were part of the fight against the Institute, even fighting in the final battle. Others have joined since then, seeing what our city is becoming.

Synths and ghouls are not your enemy. The Tyrant is.

Resist!

* * *

 _AUTHOR'S NOTE: First of all, thanks for reading this!_

 _This is more or less the prologue to a story I've had in my head for a while now. Unfortunately, I doubt I'll actually have the time to write it._

 _The protagonists were to be two original characters living in the world that the male Sole Survivor created over the course of Fallout 4's storylines, with events putting them on the road around the Commonwealth and in conflict with the Brotherhood._

 _But I needed to get words on paper regardless, so I hope you enjoy this teaser prologue, and maybe you'll take up the challenge of writing a story in this sandbox yourselves. I may or may not do so myself.  
_

 _Even so, drop a follow on this, as I probably update it with an opening chapter at some point later to introduce the protagonists._


End file.
